Seeking comments on plans for '06 AE

[ithacaartist]

Gentlemen:

One of my wards is an '06 American Eagle, s.n. 66670, 7.65 mm.

Its numbers match except mag (of course), unnumbered grips, and mismatched (#1113) 3 7/8" bbl. The wear on the grips (on the right trigger finger area, the left middle finger area and bottoms of both) is to a point where it's really the last chance to see where the checkering lines were. Classic missing chunk under safety lever...

Though there's but a ghost of the original straw remaining, a little thin on the grip straps, significantly holster-worn on the high spots--front corners of the frame, edges of trigger guard, and the take-down lever's front edge is worn enough to appear slightly chamfered, the general appearance of the finish ain't that bad, really.

There's evidence of an early refinish. The toggle axle pin is not in the white, and under magnification, the bluing reveals itself to be over a general speckling of small pits, tiny dings and scratches, and an overall landscape of lightly bead-blasted teeny peen marks. The numbers and proofs have no halos and under magnification their edges show the effects of bht blasting cleanup. Still, the refinish looks fairly good, overall, unless you whip out the ol' 10X; and the interior is properly in the white--rather, in the brown (full of patina).

The barrel, of incorrect length, numbered to a military gun, has a very funky sight. The sight base is military style in profile, but the sight blade is incorrect. Its profile starts with a straight, vertical back end, then a flat top that slants slightly toward the front, then a radius down to the front of the sight base. The blade is sharp like a knife, and the sight base's width has been reduced about 1/4 by filing/grinding, presumably to match the width of the janky replacement sight blade. The filing/grinding has affected both components.

Whoa, I'm not done yet! The topper is that there is a 1/4" chunk out of the right slide rail, almost as deep as its groove, as if someone had dropped the upper and broken this out on impact. I'm confident that it will not affect function or safety in any way, but intend to TIG it back full and intact at some point.

With as many issues as Carter's has pills, this is my .30 Luger shooter! It functions well. I cannot give definitive data on its accuracy at this point, but preliminary attempts to put a hole in a piece of typing paper failed at 10 yards! At 5 yds. (!) it seemed to be off in the 4:00 direction. I don't think it's me, 'cause I can get a 4" group at 10 yds. with my 9mm. 29/70 Mauser. I've shot either gun only a few times.

OK, I could pass this Luger on to somebody else and not have to think about these issues (Sell one of my what!?); Or I could send it to Tom, Hugh, Thor, G.T., some or all, to restore it where it looks like a good example, and really depart from its current degree of originality.

1. Change barrel and sight to correct, even if mismatched or unmarked?

2. Change barrel to 9mm. so I can afford to shoot it--and easily obtain ammo for it (without hand-loading)?

3. Refresh grips and repair chip?

4. re-refinish, and refresh straw?

Y'all know that I'll do what I really want to do, maybe even whether I can really afford it or not. But as well as testing my descriptive and narrative abilities, I'm foremost calling for a reality check, here. Ironically, tomorrow is Picture Day, and I vow to spice this post up with some .jpg's; but I thought I'd get the ball rolling. After that, we can be even more specific. In the meantime, any thoughts based on what I've described so far, whether I'm wasting my time or money (but not love) if I plan to address the gun's issues one way or the other, would be most welcome. What would you do? How pretty did you make your shooter? How much money did you bury in a shooter?

David Parker